The knives made by MRK, who posts here and includes pictures are very attractive, as of those of Gene Ingram.
For a beginner, I would avoid styles that require fitting and soldering a guard, at least for now.
The Dean Russel design that I made a lot of is both attractive and simple to make, and a very useful working design. There are pictures on the forum.
There are two methods of making a knife, forging with a hammer and anvil, and stock removal. With forging, you heat the steel red hot and beat it to shape with a big hammer.
With stock removal, you take a piece of steel and grind off everything that does not look like a knife.
All my knives are stock removal.
